Sepsis After Platelet Transfusions

Abstract

To the Editor. —I read with interest the painstaking and well-executed study of Morrow et al 1 on transfusion-associated sepsis (TAS) after platelet transfusion. transfusion-associated sepsis occurred in seven of 29 738 transfusions, of which 10219 were platelet pools from multiple donors (MD) and 19519 were single donors (SD) obtained by apheresis. However, since the 10219 MD transfusions averaged 7.3 U of platelet concentrates per transfusion, a more pertinent denominator is the sum of all donor exposures, not transfusions. Thus, TAS occurred in seven of 94118 [(10219 × 7.3) + 19519] donor exposures, a rate of 0.0074%, or about one per 13460 exposures. This risk is some 30 to 40 times less than that of TA hepatitis and about five to 10 times greater than that of TA human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). 2 When the data in Morrow et al's Table 1 is recalculated (Table) using donor exposures as the